Northern Trek: Day Three

On day three we decided to head back to the mainland.  My dear friend, former next door neighbor and chief character in the escapades of lower Yale Avenue, Troy D aka GHD3, resides in Ballard, a fun Seattle neighborhood.  It has been a rare chance to see him on his home turf - he seems to out of town at the same time that we are in town.  Even this time he thought he and his family might be away on a camping trip for the Independence Day weekend but at the last minute plans changed and we were able to get together.  He recommended that we spend Saturday the 5th together at a Wooden Boat Show on the shores of Lake Union.  We did indeed meet up there and spent some rainy hours at the festival listening to pirate stories, building wooden boats and sailing them in the shallows of a fountain.

After a few hours in the city we headed to GHD3's home where we began with a quick driving tour of his favorite streets in the area.  He is so adorable - completely devoted to the charms and sights of Seattle and its little communities.  After the tour, which involved a giant troll under a bridge and a very imposing statue of Vladimir Lenin (yeah - no idea why that's in Seattle...) (Sorry, missed pictures of those sights) we headed back to the Durham house for a gathering and supper.  Adam and Whitley joined us, and also we were super excited to reconnect with a darling family who used to live in our neighborhood in Salt Lake.  Like so many young families in the University neighborhood do, they moved away from us for their next level of school.  It was great fun to see their adorable girls and catch up.  Lovely family.

I am very blessed to have these two wonderful Troys in my life.  I wish everyone could have had the boy next door like I did - what a great life long friend.  I didn't catch a picture of his wife, whom I also adore.  She wasn't feeling great and had a bandage on her face from a surgery so she was lying low.  I love her equally.

Here are the offspring of the lower Yale Avenue neighbors:  Such cute kids.  I was so happy that they got along so well - it took a few minutes for them to warm up to each other but pretty soon were romping around the back yard and up and down the block like old friends.  Makes me happy.  What's funny is that my parents and Kathleen's parents have always been really good friends.  When I  lived in Boulder and we'd travel to SLC for a summer visit, the trip always included a morning at her house during which the grownups would sit around and talk (boring grownups! And now I am one!) while we children were shunted into the basement playroom to play.  It always took a while to navigate the waters of instant friendship with strangers, but I have fond memories of their giant tinker toys.

Funny end to the evening - Adam and Whit excused themselves early to catch a ferry back home. (Boy that ferry schedule is the boss of all Seattle social life when you live on the island!) We decided to stay a half hour longer to eek out every moment we could with our friends.  When we made it back to the ferry, lo and behold, who was behind us in line?  Adam & Whit!  They had snuck off to their favorite main-land ice cream.  I felt their sneakiness was punishable by removal of all left-over ice-cream, which the Preslars finished off for them.  They were right - it was delicious.